Manchester United star Wayne Rooney's hair transplant triggers boost for city centre clinic

November 2011

A hair expert says more people than ever are having transplants after Wayne Rooney went public with his surgery.

Dr Bessam Farjo, who runs a private practice in the city centre, said he is having hundreds of extra inquiries for the procedure which costs an average of £8,000.

He said his clinic has had a surge in calls after the United star revealed he’d paid for hair transplant surgery last summer.

Rooney wrote on his Twitter site: “I was going bald, so why not?”

He later updated his followers with a picture after the procedure. He wrote: “Hi all there’s my head.

“It will take a few months to grow. Still a bit bloody too. But that’s all normal.”

Dr Farjo, 50, from Cheadle, Stockport, runs the Farjo Medical Centre, with his wife Dr Nilofer Farjo, 47.

He said they are have experienced a threefold surge in inquiries since Rooney revealed all.

“When we first started out in 1992 it was very secretive,” he said. “Husbands wouldn’t tell their wives – they’d just say they were going on a business trip.

“Without a doubt attitudes have changed. It was starting to happen before Wayne Rooney – that just caused an explosion in interest. The way he has gone about it with his openness has been very comforting.

“We are getting an increasing number of calls from women too, probably due to more information being available.”

With a waiting list of between four and five months, patients travel from across Britain, Europe, and as far afield as the Middle East, Australia and the US to receive treatment.

The Farjos carry out more than 350 procedures each year and have helped transform the lives of many people, including former England rugby player Kyran Bracken and Dragon’s Den judge Duncan Bannatyne.

Dr Farjo added: “My wife and I were working in the NHS when we decided to branch out.

“Traditionally, you work very long hours. We were at a point in our lives when we’d just got married and wanted to start a family so we were looking at alternative ways of carrying on in the health profession without leading separate lives. We went to Toronto to train and haven’t looked back.”

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